Maria Aitken to Direct Francesca Faridany and James Waterston in DESIGN FOR LIVING at The Acting Company

The Acting Company will launch its 2016-2017 John McDonald Salon Series with a reading of Noël Coward's wonderfully wicked British comedy Design for Living on Monday, December 12th at 7 PM at the Lynn Redgrave Theater at the Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, New York, NY. Coward's remarkably modern comedy entertainingly explores the complicated yearnings of the human heart.

Single tickets are $15-$35 and include a post-show reception with the cast. Series subscriptions are also available. Purchase at www.theactingcompany.org or call (212) 258-3111.

Tony Award nominee Maria Aitken (The 39 Steps) directs a cast led by Francesca Faridany (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time) as Gilda, Adam Green (The Winter's Tale at Pearl Theatre) as Otto and James Waterston (An Enemy of the People) as Leo. Rufus Collins (The Royal Family), Liam Forde (Much Ado About Nothing at Theater for a New Audience), Mary Lou Rosato (Once Upon a Mattress), Michele Tauber (The Charity That Begins at Home at Mint Theater) and Auden Thornton ('Tis Pity She's a Whore at Red Bull Theater) complete the company.

The Salon Reading Series will resume on February 13, 2017 with R.U.R. by Karel ?apek, directed by five-time Tony nominee Dana Ivey. On March 20, the Company will present a reading of Marcus Gardley's A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, or The Gospel of Tartuffe. The series will continue on April 24th with Dollhouse by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Acting Company Artistic Director Ian Belknap, and will conclude on May 15 with rising playwright Meg Miroshnik's Lady Tattoo, directed by Devin Brain.

2016 marks the 21st year of The Acting Company's John McDonald Salon Reading Series. The Salon Series offers New York audiences a range of works that are thematically linked to the company's repertory season or provide a first opportunity to see new plays and other works that are being considered for future production.

The Salon Series runs concurrently with The Acting Company's national repertory tour, which will feature the commissioned world premiere of X: Or, Betty Shabazz vs. The Nation by Marcus Gardley, a new play that adapts the structure of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to tell the story of the assassination of Malcolm X. Ian Belknap will direct. Gardley's play will run in repertory with a new production of Julius Caesar directed by Devin Brain. The tour will begin in Phoenix, AZ on January 31, 2017 and will play up to 60 performances across the country before closing in Clinton, NY on April 2, 2017. The productions will run in New York City at the New Victory Theater from March 13-26, 2017. Complete tour information is available at www.theactingcompany.org or (212) 258-3111.

Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley in 1972, The Acting Company has toured to 48 states and 10 foreign countries, presenting more than 143 classic and new works while earning a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater, Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards. Kevin Kline, Rainn Wilson, Patti LuPone, Frances Conroy, Jeffrey Wright, Harriet Harris, David Ogden Stiers, Keith David, Hamish Linklater and Jesse L. Martin are among the more than 400 performers who began their careers on tour with The Acting Company. The Acting Company serves a dual mission of developing early-career theater artists and building a discerning audience for theater across the country, often in communities that would otherwise lack access to high-quality professional arts programming.